§ MR. JAMES O'CONNOR (Wicklow, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether be is aware that a decision was recently given whereby five officers employed in the Glasgow Post Office were each fined 6d. for failing to observe that a registered letter bad not been blue-lined at the office of origin, although previously to this decision it was customary to divide the fine of 6d. equally among the officers at fault; and, seeing that the reason given was that the amount, 6d., could not be equally divided amongst the five officers, whether the Postmaster General will consent to a reconsideration of the matter and revert to the old system of dividing the fine equally amongst the officers at fault.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The officers in question were rightly fined 6d. each for the irregular treatment of a registered letter as described, in accordance with the general rule regulating the imposition of fines. The system previously in force at Glasgow of imposing a total fine of 6d. for such an irregularity, irrespective of the number of officers involved, was not in accordance with the general rule and has therefore been abandoned; but the 811 Surveyor always has the power of mitigating the fine in individual cases when circumstances justify it.